THE CATACOMBS OF ROME

After attending a lecture at University College Roosevelt Middelburg about the early Christians and their catacombs, I produced a summary in Dutch.
This is my translation in English.

 

¢SUMMARY

University College Roosevelt Middelburg

                   Lecture 3 ( 2013, May 22 Prof. Dr. L. V. RUTGERS)

“Inquiry about the history of the early Christians, buried in the catacombs of Rome.”

                                   Leen Moelker

1 Introduction and questions

The catacombs near Rome are important archeological and historical places. Notwithstanding they are partly damaged, in catacombs  many authentic items are preserved. Italian scientific inquiries have been focussed on the grave inscriptions and wall drawings.

2005 Prof. Rutgers (lecturing at the Utrecht University in Late ancient history) and his team started their inquiries into the history of the early Christians and especially into the catacombs being a necropolis. The most important question was, feeling close to them as Christians, how the early Christians lived. But also they were interested in how symbols worked and – after discovering new facts - to  what new questions does this lead?

2 The Catacombs

The city of Rome is situated on the ‘Alban Mountains.’ In ancient times volcanic eruptions threw material of tuff into the valley’s. After congelation this tuff remained soft when isolated from the air. As soon as brought in the air tuff is hardening and will be a harder stone .

The word ‘catacomb’ is derived from the Greek language and means ‘into the valley.’ After the lava had been congealed in the valley, the tuff surface was covered by plants and trees.

Those geological conditions were essential to the need of early Christians to create an own  grave yard in the underground near Rome. This happened actually by digging corridors in the  soft tuff. The reason why was the persecution to which the early Christians were exposed in the first century AC. They made long underground corridors and burying places into the walls by means of recesses or niches. Sometimes richer families used an ‘arcosolium,’ i. e. an underground dome to bury the whole family. Graves were closed by means of a terracotta or marble ‘door’ often with inscriptions and/or paintings. Scholars counted about 40.000 inscriptions with the name and age of the deceased. Often a symbol was added.

There are 50 different catacombs with over 500.000 graves. Especially the huge Saint Calixtus-catacomb has interesting material to scholars. Also the four Jewish catacombs are important sources to scholars.

Catacombs are – if no disturbed – capsules of time, containing many particulars about the early Christians. That’s why scholars are confident to find there a synchronous image of the past.

3  Scientific research

Last century the scientific inquiry had been focussed on the wall paintings in the catacombs. Most motives are derived from the Bible and particularly from the Old Testament. For example Jonah and the whale, Daniël, Job. Already in the first centuries AC themes derived from the New Testament appeared like ‘Lazarus’, ‘the good Shepherd’, ‘two bread and seven fishes’ , Peter and Paul with the dying Christ, often guided by a christogram. A special reason to choose those motives was, Roman people had to cope with death daily.

In Rome generally people reached 20-30 years of age. Of all born children 50% died before their 5^th year. Death was a daily experience. This was particularly the case under the early Christians because they were persecuted. They named their dying day their birthday, being the day of the beginning of their everlasting life.

It is interesting to see art work in catacombs is made to the honour of HIM who can decide over life and death. It is only HIM who can overcome the enemy death. Paintings, sculpture and inscriptions are reflecting the soul and characteristics of the deceased people.

From the archeological point of view, catacombs are extremely important. Not only the huge number of graves, but certainly also the perfect condition of the material – preserved during twenty centuries – make catacombs scientifically interesting places.

An interesting analysis of the wall paintings shows us the figure of Jesus, initially as a young man. Later ( 200-300 AC), Jesus became an older man with beard and often surrounded by people not mentioned in the canonical books. This change is connected to the appearance of the apocryphal books in the 3^rd century. Lacking of exact  information was supplied by fantasy. Because He now was guided by normal creatures, Jesus became holier and more divine. And by guiding Jesus also the disciples became more divine in wall paintings. Hence Peter and Paul became a role model to the Holy Father.

A christogram is a symbol to express people belong to Christ.  The Greek letters CHI (X) and RHO(P) are intertwined like this:   

  

We see this symbol uniquely on the graves of the early Christians. But also the Jews used a symbol in their catacombs: the menorah.

Except these symbols there are no differences between the graves. We find Jewish catacombs below Villa Torlonia and Vigna Randanini near Rome.

4  Newest Inquiries

Sculpture, wall paintings and inscriptions give us information about the early Christians indirectly. What can we do when we want to know more? How reliable is this information? The answer is that we can take analyses of the bones. Prof Rutgers and his team introduced in their archeological inquiries certain methods and technics taken from nature science.

By means of a ‘particle accelerator’ they applied radioactive carbon analyses on samples from bones. After all the team was able to settle the age of that person.

This type of inquiry focusses on physical-anthropological analysis of the bone material of the early Christians. The method is well known as the Stable Isotope Investigation which became popular after 1990.

Prof. Rutgers did his inquiries until now in the Saint Calixtus catacomb. He gathered many skeletons to measure the carbon: nitrogen relation. Why? During our life our protein structure is changing under influence of what we eat. After death this processes will be stopped and fixed.

And the lesson?

Rutgers c. s. could determine the nourishment ( and the carbon : nitrogen relation)of the early Christians. And knowing what people used to eat, connected with what we know about groups early Christians, it is possible to determine if people were living in the city, in the country, or at the sea shore. And if they were rich or poor.

                               Prof. Rutgers was very interested in the teeth of the persons/skeletons. Because teeth have the same characteristics as trees (annual rings)he could conclude about age and nourishment. The patron of the nourishment of different groups led him to more characteristics. For instance, fishermen generally were poor people but enthusiastic about the message of Jesus. They lived near rivers and seashores. Rich people preferred meat so it is possible to distinguish groups early Christians, certainly in combination with the characteristics of their graves  ( name or without name, execution in marble or terracotta, inscriptions).

Rich people usually made a sacrifice with meat. Poor people knew they might obtain the superfluity of meat after the sacrifice. Normally poor people tried to catch (for free) fishes. After Paul entered Rome many poor people followed his principles. The life of Jesus Christ became an ideal, hence we can position particularly early Christians around rivers (Tiber) sea shores (Mediterranean) .Prof. Rutgers emphasizes that many poor people in Rome honoured the Caesar-cult. Our scientific inquiry has also to focus on this group to compare the results with those of the Christians. 

The conclusion is that only grave art doesn’t inform us completely about the early Christians. Together with a carbon : nitrogen analysis we will know much more about them. But we are also informed by historical signs. On the ‘gravedoors’ from the third century and later we often see a diagram of a fish. The Greek word is ICHTUS. Christians still love this symbol because of its particular meaning.

 I  (Jesus)

X (CHrist)

O (TH) of God

Y (Yios) son

S (Sigma) saviour

 5  Conclusion

The scientific archeological inquiries in the catacombs near Rome, are accelerated by means of the STI, the Stable Isotope Inquiry.  Early Christian characteristics can  be derived from skeletons by determining the contents of carbon and nitrogen. Together with art work, inscriptions and  the form of the graves (arcosolium, niche), this information lead us to a better understanding of the early Christians. We get answers on questions like what particular identity the Christians had ( rich, poor, fisherman e.g.) and what their circumstances of living were.

Comparing the information with the no-Christians, and deepening the inquiries to get high standard statistical material – which is possible thanks to the perfect condition of the graves – archeologists try to describe and explain the life and the background of the early Christians.

The catacombs of Rome can tell us uniquely about certain aspects of the ancient Christian world.

Middelburg, 2014, March 22   

This summary is a translation of my Dutch version, published on internet cwstudent@googlegroups.com